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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Laughter Is The Best Medicine

Laughter is the Best Medicine﻿

I don't cook much so I'm not good with recipes so when it comes my time to post I naturally tend to gravitate to writing articles. I hope this is useful to someone out there that might be writing or thinking of writing.

Here are a few techniques I found on the internet for writing humor. I have a lot of humor in my books and love to read books that have humor. These are written by Vonda Skelton, speaker and writer. Her website is www.vondaskelton.com.

Set the story up well. Take the time to lay out the groundwork in a logical way.

Use exaggeration. This is one time you want to take literary license through the use of hyperbole. The story is still true, but you just make it more. As I tell the school students in my Writing is Fun Workshops, take real life and make it bigger, badder, meaner, sadder.

Apply the rule of threes. Even though it’s not officially a rule, we know there is melody in the use of threes. And there’s humor in the use of threes, too.

And whether you’re using the rule of threes or simply telling a story, try to place the funniest word at the end of the sentence.

Punch words and/or punch lines often work well.

Write tight. When I initially write out a story, it’s a rambling story with all the details I normally include when I tell it from the stage. But in writing, I discovered it was best told in no more than half the spoken words.

Use words that begin with hard consonants, especially the K sound.

Use short sentences for more emphasis.

Even in humor writing, be sure to listen for the music or cadence of the words.

Rewrite…rewrite…rewrite.

Deborah Malone’s first novel Death in Dahlonega, finaled in the
American Christian Fiction Writer’s Category Five writing contest! Deborah was
also nominated for 2012 Georgia Author of the Year in First Novel category. She
has worked as a freelance writer and photographer, for the historic magazine
“Georgia Backroads.” She has had many articles and photographs published, and her
writing is featured in “Tales of the Rails,” edited by Olin Jackson. She is a
member of the Georgia Writer’s Association. As a current member of the American
Christian Fiction Writer she has established a blog where she reviews Christian
Fiction.